Chihuly Projects





SUE'S PRE-RAMBLE

Recently, my Teen Genius turned 17 years old. He's a high school senior, an all-around terrific kid, and extremely talented actor, writer, and math whiz extraordinaire. To honor his birthday, I thought I'd review some things that represent him. The list is at the bottom of the review (as I add posts).

Chihuly Projects fits my criteria because it is filled with photographs of the glass artwork by renowned artist, Dale Chihuly (chi who lee), who lives nearby. The Teen Genius has been interested in Chihuly's art since he was very young. There are many installations of his glass bowls, sea forms, and chandeliers in many businesses and museums in the Seattle area that we've seen. About seven years ago, we fell into some tickets to the Pilchuck Glass School's summer exhibit. Pilchuck is a summer institute for aspiring glass artists that Chihuly founded with some friends. Teen Genius and I made our way out to this remote location on a hot August Saturday morning. We were treated to a delicious catered buffet lunch and then went to explore the hot shops, cold shops, exhibits, and glass printing shop.

Teen Genius fell in love with blowing hot glass. He has created balloon art for the last ten years or so and this was very similar in his thinking. The day we were there it was probably ninety-five degrees out already and the furnaces were blasting even hotter. We were there until the bitter end.

Just by virtue of where we live, Teen Genius attends the one high school that is the arts magnet in our district. When he first went to sign up for classes, we found out his school is one of nine in the United States that has a hot glass shop. He immediately registered and managed to get in to Hot Glass for his freshman year. When we experienced a large earthquake on February 28th of that year, Teen Genius was standing in the hot shop under shelves of glass artwork, and just feet away from blast furnaces fed by natural gas. Thankfully, nothing fell off the shelves and nobody was hurt!

Last year when I was in hospital, Chihuly opened The Museum of Glass in Tacoma, south of Seattle. We have not yet had a chance to go there for a look-see, so my Househusband gave Chihuly Projects to the Teen Genius for last Christmas.


STRUCTURE/CHAPTERS

Chihuly Projects was published by Portland Press in 2000. The ISBN is 0-8109-6708-1. Our copy has a hard cover, dust jacket, and is 352 pages (un-numbered) long. It is about 9"x12" and the pages are very sturdy.

The "33 Projects" section is entirely photographs of various exhibits from over the years. Thankfully, Chihuly had the foresight to have the process of creation and installation documented in both still and video photography, since many of the installations are transitory and cannot be recaptured. Most of the photos cover adjoining pages. Only occasionally are pictures a single page. There are no page numbers; only a single circled number at the beginning of each new project. The projects are then described in the catalog with copies of design drawings, text, and Chihuly scribbles.


The chapters include (with my comments attached to some):

Dale Chihuly's Paradise Regained, Barbara Rose is an energetic essay by an art writer that places Chihuly in the art world, and gives a sense of his place in history both as an artist and person. She also adds to our understanding of the 33 projects. One thing that she says especially rings true with what I've seen and heard from Chihuly myself, "My Chihuly is a mischievous, cunning, inspired shaman--a magician, a contemporary Merlin, a Ken Keesey Merry Prankster who produces the psychedelic experience of a magical, glowing, and sparkling, brilliantly alive panorama without drugs." My recommendation is to read this after looking at the artwork pages. It's always good to form your own opinion before you let someone else tell you what to think about art.

The Public Voice, Dale Lanzone is a valuable essay on the history of public art, both financed publicly and privately. He begins from the time of the revolution and moves to the present day. It's interesting to learn how and why we as a people support art--from a need to commemorate people and events to art for its own sake. He ends with this, "As they have historically, public decision makers will continue to embrace art that elevates and refreshes the common moment of experience with a kernel of awe and wonder--some small magic that transforms the everyday eye and mind through the efforts and vision of another. Art that performs this function will receive encore after encore after encore in this public art medium--the most democratically expressive form of cultural production." It's good to know how and why public art is financed.

33 Projects:

1. Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

2. Artpark, Lewiston, New York

3. Shaare Emeth Synagogue, St. Louis

4. Saint Peter's Church, New York City

5. Seattle Art Museum

6. MacMillan Residence, Indian Wells, California

7. Stewart Williams House, Palm Springs, California

8. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

9. Pillsbury Mansion, Wayzata, Minnesota

10.Honolulu Academy of Arts

11. 100,000 Pounds of Ice and Neon, Tacoma, Washington

12. Rose Window, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

13. Josyln Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska

14. Linsmore Castle, Ireland

15. Union Station, Tacoma, Washington

16. Bellagio, Las Vegas

17. Malina Window, Detroit, Michigan

18. Lautner House, Palm Springs, California

19. The Boathouse, Seattle

20. Icicle Creek Chandelier, Leavenworth, Washington

21. Longhouse, East Hampton, New York

22. Vianne, France

23. The News Tribune, Tacoma, Washington

24. Victoria and Albert Museum, London

25. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

26. Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas

27. Monterey, Mexico

28. Nuutajarvi, Finland

29. Niijima Glass Art Center, Niijima, Japan

30. Ukai Museum, Hakona, Japan

31. Benaroya Hall, Seattle

32. Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem 2000

33. Jerusalem Wall of Ice

34. Chihuly Bridge of Glass

Catalog

Installations


Sample Chapter

19. The Boathouse, Seattle

In the very center of the book is the project I resonate with most. There many great projects to talk about, but the Boathouse is what it's all about. Chihuly bought this building on the shore of Lake Union in 1990 and he says in the catalog, it is always under change. The Boathouse used to be just that; a place where rowing sculls were made. Now, it is part exhibit, part conference area, part office, and all working studio. The furnaces are fired seven days a week and there is always something being created. In her essay, Barbara Rose likens the Chihuly team to a movie crew or football team, flying by the seat of their pants, taking chances, going with the flow of glass and color and heat. I've seen videos of their production process and it very often is like a movie set with the director yelling, "cut!" and "Do it again!" So much of their really good stuff comes when they combine a boatload of pieces that are similar, but each has their own character.

Dale Chihuly is art representing life and life representing art. He's fiery, malleable, cool, and crisply bright. The Boathouse shows all these aspects. I get a sense of his history and an inkling of his future, looking at these photos.


Who Would Enjoy Chihuly Projects?

Since Chihuly is not just an artist that other artists and critics like, and the general public seems to enjoy him, I'd recommend Chihuly Projects to anyone who can see. His work is usually done on a large scale, where I don't need to be nose-to-nose with it, but not so large that I have to see it from an airplane above (like Christoff). Anybody who likes beautiful things, color, or Chihuly, in particular, would enjoy this book.


What I Like - What Works

I've heard Chihuly speak several times and he's most fun when he gets this look on his face as his team is creating something and he says "what if?" Because this book captures the whole process of creating and installing, I feel him saying "what if?" just by looking at the pictures. I also get a sense of the teamwork involved in the creation of the art with the "Dale Chihuly label." He may get his name on it, but there are a number of other art professionals involved. Even viewers of the pieces become part of the art as they move through an installation, setting pieces in motion, blocking light, or sending their voices to clink against the glass. He's like one of the "old masters" with his apprentices, but Chihuly's apprentices are all world-class artists in their own right.

This is a very bold book. Even the text pages are printed in large, bold type, and the fly leafs are outrageous. Chihuly is always wearing his trademark fluorescent colored clothing -- often neon yellow pants and red shirt. I believe one of the aims of this book is to display the enormity of his artwork, so that even a two-page spread can seem small at times. The photos cover the pages with no white margin, no ugly page numbers, no text (until the catalog) explaining it.

Chihuly Projects is also interesting because I can see his progression over the years from one style and medium to the next. I love that not all of his art lasts in its created form. At the end of the book, there is a page showing how he and his team took paint in squeeze bottles to a snowy lawn and created colorful pictures in the snow. Since snow doesn't last long in the Puget Sound area, this was doomed from the outset, but what a blast! He has used snow and ice in his work for years. For performance value, none can beat him.


What I Don't Like

The one thing that is hard to capture in this book is the motion of some of his larger installations. For instance, when he's placed pieces in water or suspended them in trees or when he used ice in Jerusalem and the coolest part is the melt off and subsequent collapse of the gigantic blocks.

It's also sometimes difficult to understand the enormity of an installation without something normal-sized to compare it to.


Final Recommendation

Chihuly Projects is fun for the whole family. There's nothing disagreeable, and it gives a lot to think about when considering art as a whole or glass art specifically. When I've spent time looking through it, I find myself breathing faster. It gets me energized to create my own poetry.


If you liked this review, you'll want to read my other reviews of other art books:


The rest of the reviews in the Teen Genius's Favorites are:

Cicada


Recommended: Yes